29th Athletic Awards Banquet

Marco Mokrzycki (R) and Linda Fritschken were named Male and Female Athlete of the Year at Tuesday's 29th Barry University athletic awards banquet at Jungle Island in Miami. The women's tennis won the CHAMPS/Lifeskills trophy. Photos by Jim McCurdy

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — The Barry University Athletic Department celebrated its 29th Annual Awards Banquet on Tuesday, April 23 at Jungle Island in Miami. Awards were presented to athletes from every sport.

Tennis swept the athlete o f the year award, with Marco Mokrzycki taking the male award and Linda Fritschken earning the women’s.

Mokrzycki led the men’s tennis team to a Sunshine State Conference title for the second straight year and 10th time overall. Mokrzycki, a singles and doubles All-American from 2012, is currently 12-2 and ranked fourth in singles and second in doubles, where he has a 15-3 record. He has singles wins this spring over the number one and two players in both NCAA Division II and NAIA.

Fritschken, also a singles All-American from 2012, led the women’s team to the SSC title this spring. It was the fourth straight win for the women and seventh overall. It was also the 50th SSC title for the Bucs across all sports since joining the league in 1988-89. Fritschken is 16-1 in singles and 22-2 in doubles. She is ranked 33rd in singles.

The Professor Neill Miller Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award was given to the male and female student-athletes with the highest cumulative GPA while meeting specific criteria for academic progress and athletic participation.

Basketball junior Magne Fivelstad earned male award. He has a 3.825 GPA in finance. After a red-shirt season in 2011-12, he was one of the Bucs key players this year. He was second on the team in scoring at 10.5 points per game and second in rebounding at 5.9 per contest. He led the team in field goal shooting, hitting at a 58.8 percent clip from the floor.

Basketball also took the women’s award. Amanda Frontino, who carries a 3.943 GPA in art with a specialization in graphic design, was the winner. She had her best year as a Buc, starting 11 games and ranking first on the team in +/- stats. She averaged 5.6 points and 3.1 rebounds per game and was third on the team in made three-pointers.

For the first time in program history, the women’s tennis team captured the CHAMPS/Lifeskills trophy, which has been dominated by softball and women’s soccer. Women’s soccer finished second, while softball placed third.

Volleyball's Tania Torres earned the Sister Jeanne O’Laughlin Service Award. A member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, she has been active mentoring young students in a variety of camps and clinics, and participated in National Girls & Women in Sports Day. She is also an outstanding student and is pursuing her goal of attending medical school. In addition, she has tutored students in math, physics and organic chemistry and has volunteered at the Special Olympics, Feeding South Florida and the National Beach Clean-up.